-Nearly 30% of surveyed adults said they had sleepwalked at some point in their lives, researchers found.

Nearly 30% of surveyed adults said they had sleepwalked at some point in their lives, researchers found.

In a large cross-sectional study, 3.6% of adults said they had walked in their sleep in the previous year, but 29.2% said it had occurred either in the previous year or earlier, according to Maurice Ohayon, MD, PhD, of Stanford University in Stanford, Calif., and colleagues.

"This study supports the organic nature of sleepwalking, and underscores the fact that sleepwalking is much more prevalent in adults than previously appreciated," the researchers reported in the May 15 issue of Neurology. "It is now clear that sleepwalking represents an admixture of wakefulness and sleep, supporting the fact that sleep is not a global, whole-brain phenomenon."

Action Points

More than one-quarter of individuals participating in a study of health and sleeping habits reported sleepwalking.

Note that those reporting sleepwalking were more likely to have a family history of sleepwalking.

For this study, sleepwalking was defined as nocturnal wandering with an abnormal state of consciousness.

Ohayon and colleagues examined data on 15,929 noninstitutionalized adults, ages 18 to 102, in 15 U.S. states. Nearly 40% of the study population reported working on a daytime schedule, while 20% said they did shift work. More than half (53.5%) of the participants were married or living with someone.

The participants answered questions on health, life, and sleeping habits, as well as sleep, mental, and organic disorders that were administered by interviewers prompted by the Sleep-EVAL expert system.

Of the individuals who reported sleepwalking in the prior year, 0.2% reported a frequency of at least once per week, 0.8% said it happened two to three times per month, and 2.6% said is occurred one to 12 times.

Most of those who reported sleepwalking (80.5%) had experienced it for more than 5 years.

The prevalence of nocturnal wandering generally decreased with age. Those who reported sleepwalking were more likely than the rest of the participants to have a family history of nocturnal wandering (30.5% versus 17.2%; OR 2.12, P<0.0001).

After adjustment for age, gender, and use of psychotropic medications, several sleep and psychiatric disorders were associated with a greater risk of having nocturnal wandering episodes at least twice a month, including the following (P<0.01 for all):

Obstructive sleep apnea (OR 3.9)

Circadian rhythm sleep disorder (OR 3.4)

Insomnia (OR 2.1)

Obsessive-compulsive disorder (OR 3.9)

Alcohol abuse/dependence (OR 3.5)

Major depressive disorder (OR 3.5)

In addition, after adjustment for age and gender, similar relationships were seen for a family history of sleep walking (OR 1.84) and use of over-the-counter sleeping pills (OR 2.5) and selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (OR 3.0).

"The causality between the use of a specific psychotropic medication and the appearance of sleepwalking episodes is not as obvious as it may appear," the authors wrote, noting that the "results show that individuals taking psychotropic medication (antidepressants, anxiolytics, or hypnotics) were having nocturnal wandering episodes for as long as those without medication."

"Consequently," they wrote, "it seems unlikely that these medications cause nocturnal wandering, but rather that they appear to trigger events in predisposed individuals."

The authors acknowledged that the study was limited by the use of self-reported data on sleepwalking and other medical conditions, which were not confirmed through laboratory testing. Thus, it is likely that sleepwalking was underreported, particularly for individuals living alone.

The study was supported by an NIH grant, the Arrillaga Foundation, the Bing Foundation, and an educational grant from Neurocrines Biosciences.

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